Making Travel Plans

Wednesday, Aug. 43, 2010—Savannakhet

After picking up another pâté sandwich to eat while walking, I headed for the countryside. My guidebook had talked about the city being a mixture of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Chinese, and Laotians. And it had said that just short walks out of town would bring one to villages that were pure Lao. I worked my way eastward toward the countryside, since the town itself is very long going north and south and the Mekong River is to the west. After a few blocks, I was on the edge of town and walking beside the runway for the airport. Just as I turned onto another road, a passenger plane roared just above my head coming in for a landing. Through trial and error, I finally found my way to the small neighborhoods on the edge of town and separate villages beyond it. Of course, they were not used to having westerners walk there. Everyone was especially friendly for this reason, but one man suspiciously asked me where I was going. He seemed satisfied when I said I was just walking to see the countryside and the villages.

After having explored one wat (Buddhist temple) in a village, I passed another with a tall drum tower. I went inside to take photos of the tower and to see the buildings. A young monk approached me and said, “Hello.” Then he said more which let me know he spoke English. He asked if I would sit and talk with him for a while. The wat grounds were peaceful and shaded by large trees, so we sat on a bench in the shade and visited. It was interesting to hear about his life. He is 20 now and has been a monk for five years. He left home to be a monk because he was from a large family in a poor village. He only gets to go home twice a year for one-week visits with his family. Otherwise, he lives at the wat. It is common, however, that families seen sons to live in wats so they can have better lives. This young man named Ring Ling is studying at the local teacher college to be a secondary teacher of environmental science. His goal is to eventually be able to leave the temple and lead a secular life teaching in his village school and taking care of his parents. Although it would have been interesting to talk longer, two of the monks rang the drums on the tower to indicate it was 11:30 and time for them to eat. Monks only get to eat two meals per day—an early breakfast and another just before noon. They are not allowed to have any food after noon each day. Therefore, we said good-bye and I departed so that he could have his meal with the other monks.

After returning to town, I stayed in my room during the heat of the afternoon watching a movie on HBO and reading from a novel. I went back out around 16:00 hoping to ask a question at the tourist office, but they had already closed when I got there. I walked a block further to the Mekong riverfront, and the rains came. I ducked under the awning of a bank building and waited for them to pass. Instead of passing, they got worse. After 45 minutes of waiting, I realized I was just going to have to try to make my way back to the hotel in it all. By that time, streets were flooded. I was wearing shoes and socks, so I just removed them and carried them while wading my way back.

By 19:00, the rain had stopped again. I went in search of dinner, but I didn’t want to go too far due to skies that still looked threatening. Just 1 1/2 blocks from my hotel I found a vegetarian restaurant selling soup. It was a big bowl full with lots of noodles, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and other vegetables. And it was SPICY without my having said anything or added anything. Fortunately, the tables in restaurants here have tissues to use as napkins. My sinuses were so clear after finishing that bowl of soup!

A young Vietnamese man on a motorcycle stopped and spoke to me as I returned to my room. I didn’t trust him. He may have been nice, but I noticed he seemed a bit disappointed when I told him I had just eaten. My guess is that he was being friendly in hopes I would treat him to dinner and maybe drinking. I had a short, friendly conversation, then I told him I was tired from all my walking during the day and needed to go to my room.

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010—Savannakhet

From here to Vientiane, my next planned stop, is too long for me to look forward to making the trip. I can take a local bus leaving in the mornings which will take 9-11 hours. Or I can take a night sleeper bus at 21:00 which will arrive there at 5:30. Neither appeals to me because of the timing. If I take a day bus, I won’t arrive in Vientiane until late afternoon or early evening. Getting a room there is not so easy. Guest houses, especially, are difficult to find because they fill each day with new people who are not permanent residents of Thailand to get new Thai visas (which requires at least one overnight stay). Taking the night bus doesn’t appeal to me because I don’t want to check out of my room at noon and figure out how to spend the next 9 hours waiting for the bus and because I don’t want to arrive at 5:30 in Vientiane and wait hours before I can check into a guest house or hotel.

My first stop, therefore, was at the tourist office this morning to see if there is some place between here and Vientiane where I could stop for one night. Unfortunately, there is no mid-point. My only choices are to travel 150 km and stay overnight with another 300 km to go the next day or to travel 350 km the first day and have only 150 km remaining for the next day. I have chosen the latter, since the former still would result in a long travel day getting me to Vientiane too late to be assured of easily finding a room. So when I leave Savannakhet, I will take a bus to Pakxan. It’s not popular with western tourists, but the tourist office told me there are guest houses there. It will take me maybe 6-8 hours to get there. Then the next day, I can catch a morning bus to Vientiane so that I arrive there around noon.

I am thinking of waiting here in Savannakhet another day before departing. Since I didn’t get a visa to allow me to enter Thailand earlier, I really have too many days here in Laos. My room here in Savannakhet is inexpensive and nice, so it just makes sense to spend an extra day here before moving onward.

This city is filled with colonial buildings that need restoring. A few have been restored and are so beautiful—an old hospital building, some governmental buildings, some private homes that have been turned into guest houses or restaurants, etc. The city had been a major regional headquarters area for the French. And many Chinese and Vietnamese had come here to operate businesses. But the French War caused the French to leave, then the communist takeover caused the businessmen with money (mostly Chinese and Vietnamese) to cross over into Thailand. That resulted in the city being greatly abandoned and being of less importance. Even today, there are many buildings that are still abandoned or vacant. If this city were in a capitalist country, people would be coming here to buy the old buildings and restore them. But with the communists still in power, there is just no incentive for anyone to want to do much. I spent much of the morning taking photos of these buildings—the ones that need restoring and the ones that have been restored.

A few tourists do come here. Many of those, however, are people making visa renewal runs from Thailand so that they can continue to live there. But in general, the tourists skip this town visiting only the islands in the south (Don Dhet, Don Khon, and Don Konge), Vientiane, Vang Viang, and Luang Prabang. The latter is also filled with old colonial architecture. Residents have renews the structures and gotten a World Heritage Site designation there, so it has captured the tourists who are interested in such things. To come to Savannakhet, they have to be more interested in faded glory rather than restored glory.

I did meet a German man living here as I walked this morning, however. But he is not living here because he loves the place or has hopes of developing tourism. It was 10:00, and he waved hello and started talking to me. He was drunk and drinking another big beer. He lived in Thailand and had a wife there for 12 years. Now he is here. He was very unhappy. Regarding Thailand, he said that all they want is your money if you are a foreigner living there. Then he implied that living here was no better. He questioned where someone could live indicating he had problems with Germany, too, and would have difficulty accepting life in the US if he had the chance to live there. It as impossible to have a good conversation, so I told him I thought I should walk more because the rain might come back again soon.

Had Phad Thai this evening for dinner. It was a nice change. I didn't have it throughout the time I was in Thailand; it was never on the menu at the small places where I ate. Got a nice "fingerling" banana for dessert afterwards. The cyber cafe has homemade yogurt with honey. I plan to have that for dessert after I finish being online.